The chief executives of FTSE 100 companies will have made more money in 2025 by midday on Monday than their average worker does in a whole year, according to the latest measure of inequality between bosses and their employees.
Median pay for FTSE 100 chief executives is £4.22m, 113 times the median full-time worker’s pay of £37,430, according to the High Pay Centre, a campaign group. That means UK bosses will exceed their workers’ annual pay within 29 hours – or at about 11:30am on Monday, if they started work straight after the new year holiday.
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Bosses will hit the milestone marginally quicker this year than last, when it was reached at 1pm on the third working day of the year.
Workers’ pay did improve somewhat faster over the year, according to figures disclosed by the companies. Pay for bosses rose by 2.5%, against 7% for workers. However, bosses’ pay is at record levels.
The annual study aims to highlight the huge disparity in pay for bosses and their staff, a gap that has grown bigger in recent decades, prompting calls for action from unions and some politicians.
Paul Nowak, general secretary of the Trades Union Congress, a union group, said: “Every working person plays a part in producing Britain’s wealth. But while millions of low-paid workers are still feeling the effects of the cost of living crisis, people at the top are taking more than their fair share.”
AstraZeneca’s Pascal Soriot has been the best-paid FTSE 100 chief executive for several years. He received an £18.7m package for 2024 despite shareholder objections. Erik Engstrom, boss of data company RelX and Tufan Erginbilgiç, head of jet engine maker Rolls-Royce, were both awarded £13.6m.
The median salary equates to hourly pay of £1,298.46, or nearly £22 a minute. The High Pay Centre assumed that FTSE chief executives work about 62.5 hours a week.
Some observers have argued that chief executives earn their huge rewards, and that companies need to pay that much to secure the best people. In 2023, the head of the London Stock Exchange argued that British companies should pay bosses more to match American rivals.
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Unions argue that increased pay should go to workers. The TUC said it was hopeful that the Labour government’s employment rights bill will improve pay bargaining rights and job security, as well as pushing more people towards union membership. However, business groups have lobbied strenuously against the bill, which they argue will force them to raise prices.
Luke Hildyard, director of the High Pay Centre, said that financial disparities fuel political division, and said putting workers on boards would help to close the gap between workers and bosses.
“A feeling that the economy works for the enrichment of a tiny elite at the expense of wider society is an underrated cause of populist anger and support for extremist politics,” he said. “Policymakers who fail to address this inequality are storing up some big problems for the future.”
